Teotihuacán Pyramids in the Valley of Mexico

Valley of the Dead Taken While Standing on Pyramid of the Moon

Teotihuacán is a sacred site that is about 30 miles northeast from Mexico City, Mexico. This is a very popular area to visit from the city, as these ruins are among Mexico’s most remarkable sites. Some historians consider them to be amongst the most important in the world. Teotihuacán was built about 300 AD and is characterized by enormous monuments that have been carefully laid out based on symbolic and geometric principles.

The Temple of Quetzalcoatl is one of its most monumental structures, located in the center of the area. It boasts fine decoration and lavish offerings. The front of the temple has large, finely carved serpent heads that jut out from feathered collars that are carved into its stone walls. This temple has a pyramid built on top of it called the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. Here over 200 ceremonially buried warriors’ skeletons have been found by archaeologists.

The Pyramid of the Sun is positioned on the Avenue of the Dead’s east side. It is the third biggest pyramid in the world and the largest pyramid that has been restored in the Western Hemisphere. This structure has not been completely understood yet, but it is built over a sacred cave that has the shape of a four leaf clover. The first part of the Pyramid was built about 100 BC and was completed 400 years later.

The Pyramid of the Moon faces the northern plaza and has no discovered features in its interior. It is smaller than its neighboring pyramid but appears to be the same since it is built on higher ground. This pyramid seems to have been built in a pattern to reflect the sacred Cerro Gordo Mountain to the north.

This site was the whole reason I visited Mexico. Tho I found so much more that was worth seeing, for a history nut like me, this site was still the highlight of Mexico for me. Its a really big site tho so make sure you go early.

The place is utterly fantastic! If the Romans, who were conquering most of the known world, at the time of Teotihuacan’s heighday (300CE), had seen it, even they would have been impressed and dumb-founded!! And I don’t think “savages” would have been the word they would have chosen to describe Native American people!